Education International Research
As evident from Table 1, Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan, and Iraq accounted for more than half of all newly arrived children in elementary school in 2015. These countries have also dominated refugee migration statistics for many years (since 2012 in the case of Syria). According to a recent study covering the period between 1988 and 2015 (Grönqvist & Niknami, 2017), there is a significant and growing achievement gap between children born in Sweden and those born abroad. Interestingly, there were no differences in school achievement for students who arrived before they turned seven (age of compulsory schooling) and those who arrived after the official school start in 1988. Since then, the groups drifted apart considerably, reaching a peak in 2008. Those who arrived before they turned seven have slightly improved their results, while those who migrated thereafter performed considerably poorly during this period. However, Grönqvist and Niknami’s study shows that children born in Asia and Africa, in particular, had the poorest progress. Students born in other Nordic countries and in the EU had the best grades among the newly arrived. There are at least three significant reasons behind these differences: (i)
Students arriving from other Nordic and EU countries are children of labour migrants and it can be assumed that their move to Sweden contained a certain amount of planning, preparing and organising. Students from Asia and Africa are mostly refugees, with many having spent years in transit camps in Kenya, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iran. The trauma of the arduous route across the Mediterranean6 means that these children have different experiences of what it means to leave their native country and under what circumstances they arrive in Sweden.
(ii)
Varying reasons for migration lead to at least initial and temporary differential class positions in Sweden for refugees in comparison with labour migrants. It takes many years for adult refugees to obtain employment. For many, a steady job remains an illusion and they easily find themselves entangled in a lifelong circle of welfare programmes and language courses. From previous sociological studies, and as confirmed in Grönqvist and Niknami’s study, it is evident that parents’ socioeconomic background (education and employment) to a large extent affects students’ achievement. When accounting for parents’ backgrounds, the gap between students born in Sweden and those born abroad diminishes by 35 per cent (Grönqvist & Niknami, 2017, p.65). Additionally, the socioeconomic background also determines a family’s choice of where to resettle. Thus, many newly arrived families end up in socially marginalised neighbourhoods with overwhelmingly immigrant-origin populations. Segregation accounts for almost half 6 See additional information on International Organization for Migration website: www.iom.int
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